Business Reporter

Debris found in search for MH370

This Friday, March 21, 2014 graphic provided by Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), shows an area in the southern Indian Ocean that the AMSA is concentrating its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on. Planes are flying out of Australia again to search for two objects detected by satellite that may be debris from a missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner.

Air Force crews rushing to the Indian Ocean to locate suspected debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane face huge challenges in retrieving even a 24-metre-long object, search-and-rescue pilots warn.

The accuracy of satellites in pin-pointing the location of the area where the images of the debris were taken will be one of the first major hurdles for search teams.

Once within the specific search area, the air crews’ ability to find the debris will depend on a range of variables including the strength of the radar signal bouncing off debris in the ocean.

Experienced search-and-rescue pilot Max Lincoln said even if the search planes were able to get within a few square kilometres of the objects, their ability to locate them would depend on what they were made of and how well the radar signals bounced back off them to the aircraft.

”If the objects are low in the water, there will not be a lot of reflectivity from the objects,” he said.

”It is challenging for various reasons – even the best radar operator and the best equipment in the world might not locate them. But if the object is still floating after 10 days, there is a reasonable chance it will float for a while yet.”

Mr Lincoln, who has flown for 40 years in countries including Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Laos and Libya, said the success of visual searches from aircraft was also hugely reliant on favourable weather conditions.

He was involved in a search operation for several people lost at sea in the Gulf of Carpentaria several months ago. While Mr Lincoln’s plane located the missing people on a sweep of the area, on a second pass the search team found it very difficult to find them because of the sea conditions.

”It is very, very frustrating when you get out and you only have an approximate position,” he said. ”It means you have to fly long legs up and down.”

Another search-and-rescue pilot, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the hurdles remained high for the air crews tasked with locating the debris.

”They have found a big object, and that is a promising sign. But even in really good conditions when you do a pass [to locate an object], you can miss it on the second pass,” he said.

”It will be really hard to spot. If it is overcast and even a little bit showery, it will make their job difficult.”

The pilot said the sea had to be conducive for the search aircraft in order to locate the debris.

”If the seas are up, it will not only obscure the object but sink it as well,” he said. ”They could get out there, and the object is legitimately where they think it is, but it can be underwater.”

The search teams will also have to hope sea currents have not moved the debris a long distance since the satellite images were taken. If it is found to be debris from the Malaysia Airlines plane, the next challenge will be to find other parts of the plane.